I Made a Deal
by Literal Candy Cane
Summary: It's not like she didn't know what she was signing up for, even if she hadn't taken it seriously. It had seemed easy at the beginning, too. Only now they weren't just silly TV characters. Now, it wasn't just a strange show she used to watch when she was younger. It was real, and she was involved.


**Prologue**

* * *

Waking up again after dying, she expected that.

It _had_ been part of the deal. Honestly, it had been the main reason why she'd accepted it. Even if she'd only half believed it at the time, who doesn't want another chance at living? And now, knowing that she was alive and well, she knew that they hadn't been lying. How else could you explain the heartbeat? Or feeling warm again?

What she had not been expecting, was waking up as a baby.

Not an adult, or even a child, but a _baby_. A baby, of all things; for there was really no other explanation for the gross feeling of being surrounded by sticky fluid. Or, the cramped but sort-of-familiar, sort-of-comforting space she was curled up in. The plugged nose, or even her near blindness only confirmed her theory. Sure, she wasn't an expert on baby-making, but she'd payed attention in Biology. She knew how it worked.

But it's not like she could do anything about that. What could she do? Force her 'mother' into early and quite possibly fatal-for-her labor? Even if she knew how, that wasn't an option. Not for her.

So, she waited. For weeks and weeks. Hearing voices, and seeing odd flashes of light with her poor eyesight. Moving around, testing out her fingers, toes. Thinking, planning. Lamenting at the total isolation, despite the semi-comforting presence that had to be her 'mother'.

It was clear, because of her developed senses, that she was an older baby, near the end of the typical nine months. And, sure enough, weeks later –Or maybe months? She couldn't tell–, she was born. An uncomfortable, disgusting, all-around awful experience she'd love to permanently wipe from her brain.

In fact, she'd like to just forget the entire birth, breast-feeding, and diaper changing period of her new life entirely. She appreciated the help and care, obviously, but she could happily live without those particular memories.

Still, despite the horrible experiences that nobody was ever supposed to remember, she gained some things too. Freedom for furthered mobility, the ability to learn outside of the womb. She finally put a name to her location –Konoha, thank god–, and the names of her 'mom' and 'dad'. The main thing though, was a new name. _Her_ new name, Kotori.

It wasn't a bad name, she supposed, just strange. Odd sounding, when she'd spent nineteen years of her life going by another, English, name. It also happened to be about the only thing she could actively recognize on a day by day basis, considering she had only ever spoken English, not Japanese. Oh, she knew a few words, but recognizing the odd word here and there was a far cry from even semi-fluent.

But, an adult mind in a child's body was good for a few things, and it wasn't long before she could start piecing together parts of her 'parent's' conversations. She'd spend hours watching them talk, babbling loudly to try and get them to point out things and say the names so she could mimic the sound. Her vocal chords couldn't say them just yet, but even practicing the sound made her remember the words.

It wasn't long after that, that her new family started to notice her oddness. She advanced too quickly. Learning and doing things that were leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the village's babies. At least, in comparison to the other civilian kids. Had she been born in a clan, they wouldn't have batted an eyelash. Considering she was not, her new 'parent's' kept an eye on her. Civilians or not, they could tell she wasn't like the rest.

She learned to crawl far too fast. Gained control over her bladder way too early. Her crawling was edging closer and closer to toddling attempts. Her babbling was starting to sound eerily similar to proper words. When they observed her, solemn brown eyes observed back.

For them, it was unnerving. Babies weren't aware at her age, not like she was. This was alien to them, something that was part of the shinobi world, and not their peaceful civilian life. Unnatural for an average civilian girl.

After seeing the ever increasing awareness and the considering looks, she resolved to slow down and try to advance at a normal level. The only problem with that, however, was that she hated it. Loathed it to a startling extent. She didn't want to slow down, and it didn't take long for her flimsy resolve to snap.

It was hard to pretend. To be like the rest. She didn't think less of the other children, far from it. They were just so _slow_ compared to her. Half of them could barely crawl properly, and she was already using various furniture to keep herself upright. She had always been impatient, and the other children just seemed so different from her. They were content to let their lives play out slowly, like it was meant to, but she wanted to do everything _now_.

Before long, people started throwing around new words to describe her, instead of the usual "She's cute!", or "Looks just like her mom!"

Genius. Different. Weird. Words she'd quickly come to loath. They meant that she would forever be picked out from the rest, would always be expected to be above and beyond her peers.

It occurred to her, that maybe this wasn't a good thing. Yes, it meant that people would grudgingly accept that she'd know better than them, something that could definitely come in handy later, but it also meant that she was gaining attention. The civilians living in her area of the village all wanted to see the genius baby her parents were bragging about. She was constantly being compared to the other children. Word was spreading around.

Worse, occasionally a ninja would walk by and see her toddling around her 'mom's' feet, and stare wonderingly at the small child. She would stare back. Their trained eyes could see what civilians could not. That she was almost too smart, almost too advanced. And when they looked at her with calculating eyes, she couldn't help but become nervous.

The real kicker was that she wasn't anything special. Not really. Just a girl who foolishly agreed to a deal, and laughed off the consequences. Now, she was being labeled a genius. And only because she had a major head start on everything. Eventually, the rest would catch up.

Still, despite the minor inconveniences, she had no intention of not fulfilling her end of the deal. Never mind that backing out of the agreement would end poorly for her, she _would _complete her task.

And she had all this time to plan, after all.

* * *

**Three things you need to know:**

**A.) I am doing this for fun**

**B.) I am doing this for practice**

**C.) Don't take this too seriously, it's just an idea that popped into my head.**


End file.
